Okay online gamers my son graduates from H.S. this year and we are buying him a new laptop. He is trying to sell me on this brand but I know very little about them. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your input.

T
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I've never messed with one, but I've followed there website for a number of years. They seem to be a division of Dell that is focused on catering to PC gamers. They offer some cutting edge stuff compared to other manufactures.
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For most serious gamers, "Gaming" and "Laptop" don't go well together. I would certainly consider either choosing an afordable laptop for school use and working towards a good gaming unit, OR just spending some money on a decent gaming rig. That being said I spent MANY hours in college gaming on my Powerbook Titanium and it was a great experience.
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:-)

Get him a small and light laptop for college...then get to help pay for a "Gaming PC" that he can put in his room with a nice monitor.
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As for Alienware, they make good products, but you pay for appearance. If that is an issue, go for it. They used to be one of the best Independents in the Biz, and Dell bought them a few years back and have effed them up a bit.
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It's just an overpriced Dell XPS now... :-)
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Good machine, but way overpriced IMHO. I would just get him a Dell Outlet unit. http://www.dell.com/outlet

I usually uncheck the "Lease Return" and "Scratch and Dent" options.
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I don't know that I'd go that far, they actually still use higher quality parts rather than the lowest bidder crap that dell uses on their normal boxes. But for a well specced gaming rig, you will pay $3k or more from Alienware. I bought a rig from them a couple years ago and it's great. Their tech support is also better than the normal dell jobbies, separate number.

If you are looking to get a gaming laptop, you will pay $4k+ for a good build, and it is more of a portable desktop than an actual laptop - you'll be lucky to get 45mins on battery. Not worth it, IMO.

If he is really serious about a gaming rig, one of the higher end shops like Alienware or Falcon are really the only way to go, outside of building your own. I've done both and prefer avoiding the hassle of the build and the convenience of having tech support on the phone.

If you are interested in building your own, Tom's Hardware is a good resourse. That article is one of their recent system builder contests, which should have multiple builds at different price points.
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I have a friend who has one and hates it. It's been shipped back for warranty repairs twice in the 18 months he's owned it. They're flashy and weigh a ton. I think you could do better for the money.


:-)


Chris.....
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my only concern would be that if your son is going to college and will be using the laptop for school work as well, I've heard alienware laptops have horrible battery life. This may have changed with the most recent models, but if it is still the case having something that won't die during the middle of class would be better.
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You will get crap battery out of any laptop specced for gaming. Video cards just pull too much power.
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Yah, thats what I figured. Just didn't know if they made any improvements since I last looked at the specs. I switched to Apple 4 years ago and have been getting more and more out of the loop with PCs lately.
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If ya want a gaming rig that "might" not break the bank, voodoo pc and widow pc both make some nice units (I say "might" as price is based on how you rig them). If you're looking for a nice gaming laptop that definately won't break the bank, MSI makes a few that are pretty nice. I've played alot of more demanding games (Crysis, CoD4, WoW, etc.) and even with my mid-level model, it's handled them nicely. I guess it all depends on how far into the extreme you want to go with "gaming".
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Thanks for all the great input. I should have given more detail.

He is not a hardcore gamer but does like his WoW not to lag...That being said I will probably be looking for something a bit more reasonably priced.

Thanks,

T
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You definitely don't need an Alienware to get the most out of WoW. The requirements are actually quite low and just about any laptop with a slightly upgraded video card can handle it easily.
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My years old Compaq handles WoW okay, back when I played for a week or two. However, I went the cheap laptop (Sam's Club display model of a Compaq Presario for $600) and a gaming rig that I put together myself. For real gaming you definitely want a desktop. The compromise between laptop benefits (size, battery life, portability, weight, etc) and gaming rig requirements (power draining, big monitor, comfortable peripherals, etc) is a fairly worthless machine. Better to have 2 machines that do different things very well then on that does both badly.

Just my:-)
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I've had all kinds of laptops and my current set up suits me perfectly. I got an ASUS 1000he netbook for general web surfing and carrying around and built a custom desktop to do anything rigorous. I realized that I didn't really need to carry around most of my computing power and it was cheaper and more efficient to go with two units. This way I have plenty of battery power and plenty of computing power.
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I have two as well, an alienware desktop that rocks whatever games I throw at it, and an older dell laptop that I take with me on the train when I commute. Honestly, the only reason to get a gaming laptop is for lan parties, or if you do a lot of travelling. Basically, due to the crap battery life, it winds up being tied to the power supply regardless of where you go, but it's easier to carry around than tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse.
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Hell Tony you could go with the latest Macbook to do WOW.
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Going to agree with two of the points made. Laptops are junk for gaming. And alienware is just overpriced dell.
I know a few people that have alienware pcs and most wish they would have spent 1/2 the money and got what they really wanted. Also, their warranties are junk.
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